The ecommerce market is continuously growing. Currently, ecommerce in Europe itself is expected to be worth €717B at the end of 2020. The biggest change in this market is the number of players operating in the sector right now. Poland-based Edrone is one such player that provides instant ROI and customer experience solutions for ecommerce.
Raises funding
Edrone has raised $5.3M (approx €4.5M) in a Series A round of funding from a Hungarian VC, PortfoLion – a member of the OTP Group.
In addition to the VC funding, a few weeks ago, Edrone raised a $2.8M (approx €2.3M) grant for their autonomous virtual assistant’s R&D project.
The raised capital will be invested in research and business development for the European and Latin American regions. It’s their first funding after bootstrapping for four years.
Understanding & engaging customers’ behavior
Founded in 2014 by Michal Blak and Rahim Blak, the Poland-based company Edrone is a ‘Plug’n’Play’ marketing automation designed for online stores.
The platform analyses customers’ behavior and engages them in using automated and personalised messages. It processes data on user behavior and then follows up with customers by sending them personalised, automatic messages using Artificial Intelligence (AI) scripts.
Edrone’s customers include major European online stores as well as developing eStores. Among the Edrone customers are x-Kom, Eastend, CitySport, Agent Provocateur, Tous, Wojas, Muve, and over 500 other stores. Each month Edrone handles internet transactions worth over €3B.
The startup will hire more than 100 people in the next 12 months, most of them will be working on the product and business development.
Use of technology as a competitive advantage
Edrone innovation involves the use of social eCRM and machine learning technology. The system automatically collects and analyses data about user behaviour in the e-store and creates personalised and tailored messages to increase sales and customer lifetime value (CLV).
The product is aimed at medium and large ecommerce businesses that want to understand their customers’ behavior and accordingly want to engage them with the right product. Main features include marketing automation, on-site marketing, AI-driven product recommendation, customer care solutions, and a dedicated CRM for ecommerce.
“We’ve created Edrone with the idea to help online stores to generate more revenue from their existing customer base. The idea was well-received from the very beginning, allowing us to bootstrapping into over 1000 customers worldwide,” says Michal Blak, CEO of Edrone.
The startup has offices in Sao Paulo and Barcelona. Currently, they employ over 50 people – a number that will be tripled in the next few months. The startup aims to become a one-stop-shop for e-commerce.
Will focus on South America
According to the startup, the funds from the VC will be spent within the next 18 months on customer development in existing markets, such as LATAM, as well as for opening new ones. The startup also claims that this year alone, LATAM has grown by 230%, almost doubling the global ecommerce industry’s sales growth (130%).
The investment will be allocated into two strategic areas. This round’s funds will be used to accelerate further development in the EU and LATAM regions. In Europe, they plan to open new markets in the CEE region. For South America, the plan is to develop strategic partnerships. This is because, in this region, they have successfully launched operations in the last three years, with over 100 customers on-board in Brazil, as of today.
According to Felippe Periera, COO of Edrone for the Brazilian market, “South America is the place to be for ecommerce companies. In Brazil alone this year we’ve seen 130% growth in ecommerce revenue. Latin America as a whole has grown by over 200%.”
As for the funds coming from the National Centre for Research and Development (NCRD), it will be spent on developing AI technology for ecommerce businesses. NCRD is a Polish implementation agency with an aim to support Polish companies and science units in developing their abilities to create and make use of solutions based on research results
With the help of natural language processing algorithms (gMAP and MAP, developed under the R&D work), the team will create Edrone AVA – a platform that will allow online stores to assemble and implement virtual sales assistants.
Such assistants will be able to freely talk to the customer in the same way as a salesperson would do while conducting sales in physical stores; it will be something more than just a simple bot based on a predictable and finite set of questions and answers.
“According to Business Insider, in 2022, up to 90% of customer care tickets will be served by AI. We want all of these interactions to be humanlike, therefore, simply pleasant for customers”, adds Piotr Stachowicz, CTO of Edrone.
Edrone’s customer base includes Husqvarna, Converse, Leftheit, Tous, Jean Louis David, and other well-known European and Brazilian brands.
It makes money through product licenses in the SaaS model, with prices starting at $300 (approx €255). Their main competitors include Insider, Exponea, Klaviyo, and Emarsys.
Image credit: Edrone
